Saturday, August 20, 2016

Leaf Me Alone

     The article I read was the one discussing the new bionic leaves. These leaves are the brainchildren of a few wicked smart Harvard kids who decided having regular old leaves to photosynthesize just wasn't good enough.  These bionic leaves can (if I'm understanding this correctly) burn the CO2 directly into fuel and also are ten times more efficient at photosynthesizing than actual leaves.
     This article (obviously) reminded me of the photosynthesis unit we did in bio. And as interesting as I personally found the unit to be, it was also absolute hell in its purest form. There was always something or other that I would forget about or I would leave a small detail out. I can honestly say is was the hardest out of all the units for me and at that time the decency of my grade was living on a prayer.
     I do have a few questions though. Does the bionic leaf look like an actual leaf? In the article. pictures of the leaf aren't actually featured. Will we start seeing these in places like busy cities soon? If we start implementing these new "leaves", what kind of impact will it have on the world? All of these things are things I am genuinely curios about.

2 comments:

  1. Yeah i get to be the first. Is this what going to Harvard would be like? I do think that this could pose as a great solution inner city blocks. I do agree with everything that you said.

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  2. Wow, I never even thought about what they would look like if we brought these "leaves" into our actual towns or cities. I feel like, as sweet as metal trees with little waving solar panel leaves would be, it probably isn't the most effective way of utilizing this new tech. In my mind, I feel like this would take place at a power plant, with solar panels like the solar panels today. Maybe, though, it could be steered into a more consumer friendly realm, where you had your own little fuel maker inside/ outside your house. Either way, I totally agree with your questioning about the actual implementation of the tech, and what that would look like.

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